The Sum of Our Parts
by Nemesis13
Summary: The Institute, the Brotherhood, the Minutemen, they all became one under her guidance. As humanity healed the Mother Earth they so nearly killed they stretched their hands to the skies above and beyond, hoping for more. Humanity had been brought to its knees by their own hubris, they had seen the blood on the walls, it was time for the future. It was time for THEIR future.
1. Prologue

**These two games seemed fairly compatible and I was bored out of my skull, so here you go, if you like it, review. Because really, if I don't get a response, I won't continue it, regardless, enjoy.**

 **I decided to gloss over the buildup because, frankly there are more then a few of these stories that stall themselves out on the start. I'm not going that route, you'll find out the kind of woman Nora is early on and then see the timeline, when Shanxi happens you'll get to watch all the fun.**

 **So truth, if this goes anywhere this is going to be a 'Humanity, FUCK YEAH!' sort of deal, because honestly I look at our current world, our current pop culture influences, and look at Mass Effect while scratching my head in confusion. Did we at some point forget about dedicated gunships, ODST's, Gundams, and mother fucking orbital nuke strikes? Apparently...but none of these characters did.**

 **Enjoy a tale of a humanity who rose from the ashes of their own hubris, who melded flesh to machine, who developed weapons of war that the Reapers could never anticipate nor hope to understand.**

 **Meet the Systems Alliance.**

* * *

Nora was for lack of better words at an impasse. Christ, she'd been playing everything by ear for the past six months regardless but _this_...fucking hell she really didn't want to be the woman making the call on this one.

She was a lawyer by trade, plain and simple. A woman with a cause, defend the innocent against the callous bite of an uncaring system while making them all look like idiots in the process as her dearly departed hubby liked to put it. Protect the weak, spite the corrupt, go home to her family at the end of the day, and be done with it all as she passed out on the couch thanks to a bit too much wine and do it all again tomorrow.

That wasn't her calling anymore though. Not by choice mind but it wasn't like the long dead leaders of China and the United States had asked for her permission to baptize the world in nuclear fire. It wasn't like anyone asked Nora if it was all right to be shoved in a fucking cryo-freezer for two hundred years to be used as some sort of guinea pig by a perverted sociopathic megacorporation.

It wasn't like she had asked to have her husband murdered before her eyes and her son kidnapped sending her on a fools errand across the irradiated wastes of Boston and beyond, to fight a boogeyman organization run by her now _sixty year old child._ Goddamn cryo-freeze...

She hadn't been asked if she could handle any of this. She hadn't been asked if she could cope, if she could bear the cross that had been thrown across her back, but bear it she did because no one else could.

Because in the end, Nora knew she could handle it, everyone else could not, and she accepted the goddamned hero complex since no one else would.

The Brotherhood of Steel. Zealots and idiots.

The Railroad. Blind Idealists.

The Institute. Self interested Machiavellian bastards to the core.

The Minutemen. Heh...well Preston may head the only group who truly had the people's best interest in mind even if he was a bit too anxious to send her out to save random settlements.

Thank God, the merciless horrible fuck he was for her friends. Without them...she didn't think she could survive the Hell on Earth she had been drawn into.

Taking in a deep breath she turned to Piper, her lover and second in command, the woman who somehow managed to worm her way into the jaded widows heart. Removing her glasses Nora pinched the bridge of her nose before shaking her head slowly gaining all those in the rooms attention.

"Am I making a mistake?" Curie hummed in her adorable Curie way, Danse frowned obviously not ok with the likely result of their machinations but kept his peace, Hancock and Macready just exchanged looks while snorting derisively. Preston simply muttered "Your call, General" as Deacon nodded his tired agreement.

Nick, despite his damaged synthetic flesh, managed to convey his disdain for her decision with a scowl while the ever loyal Codsworth simply muttered "Oh ma'am..."

It was Cait who spoke up for the group though, "Listen love, ain't no one go'in to be protest'in that tak'in over the Institute is a bad idea. And the Brotherhood, well, fuck 'em really. You give 'em the chance you promised but don't be surprised when they spit in yer face. Ya can't change the way a zealot thinks, remember what happened at Far Harbor, when we gave those fuck'in crazies the chance to live in peace?"

Nora winced at that, she remembered all right, the radiation worshiping fools hadn't taken but a month to turn on the settlements after she'd made peace between the factions, and it had all ended in blood.

Just like she knew it would.

That was the funny thing really, everyone liked to pretend that killing your fellow man was the hardest thing in the world when in reality it was hilariously easy to end a life.

Hiding the body afterwords? Eh...that could get annoying, unless you had Strong following you around and you offered up the cadaver as a snack.

Lawyer remember, nowhere in the job description does the word 'Nice' pop up.

"Ok...ok I'm making the call now... Danse...you...you talked to those you could right?"

The former Brotherhood Paladin and recently revealed to be synth nodded as he glared at his leader, "Many of the scribes and initiates took your offer without careful consideration, they are truly that disenfranchised. Most of the paladins though..."

Nora Shepard was a bad woman, mostly because she didn't care in the slightest that the meat-heads didn't accept her olive branch. She wanted the brains as well as the young and uncorrupted on her side as she rekindled the human race, fools willing to run out on the front lines to face god knows what were easily replaced and Danse knew it.

Ergo the hate-on fueled glare he was spearing her with at the moment.

Once again, lawyer, her ability to give a fuck about his opinion was negligible at best.

Sighing she picked up the radio mic and clicked the button transmitting the open signal across the Commonwealth, "Attention Elder Maxson of the Brotherhood of Steel. I am Nora Shepard, General of the Minutemen, and the new Director of the Institute."

She licked her dry lips as she shot her emerald gaze to her gathered comrades, all of them, despite their feelings on this were giving her their support. She had to do this, for humanity, for the future...for Shaun...

"I have good news, the Institute has managed, through various means I will disclose at the negotiation tables, to gather the genetic codes of most flora and fauna of Pre-War Earth. Through their synthetic research, and the data gathered on the pre-war Garden of Eden Creation Kits we can not only beat back the wastes but reclaim them. All we need to do is work together, for the future...for our children."

Before she could continue a return signal squeaked out in reply causing everyone to wince as the enraged man replied, "HOW DARE YOU! The Institute is an abomination! They have melded flesh and steel in such a manner where humanity is no longer a necessity! You extol a virtue that will eliminate the human race from the equation while replacing our people with abominations and forgeries!"

True, really. Nora wasn't stupid enough to deny that the man had a point, idiot or not.

The problem was she had an insiders perspective, she'd been part of the pre-war world, she'd been a cog in the machine that saw mankind brought low, and well... Maybe humanity needed a forced evolution, sans the cannibalism and green skin.

"Be that as it may, I am now in control and I swear I will use all my new found power to aid the people of _Earth_ , not just the Comm-" She was cut off as the man spat out a near animalistic snarl.

"You fucking WHORE! Do you not see that you have only become part of the problem!? You will be nothing but a footnote in history, a sad pathetic reminder of the past who spread her legs for a bit of power!"

OK, wow. Crude much? Whatever, she was pissed off now, and it didn't do well to piss off an Irish-American lawyer who'd already cut a bloody swath across the Commonwealth, thanks, bye.

"Are you saying you refuse to even consider peace?" Her reply had been cold and dark, her companions all tensing as they sensed what was about to happen.

Curie began crying as Hancock pulled her into a hug, Deacon sighed as he shook his head looking completely unsurprised, Cait cracked open a beer and downed it in one pull.

Lucky bitch, before she could observe more of their reactions Piper stepped up behind her and wrapped her arms around Nora's waist, leaning into her lover she shivered slightly as the ravenette whispered, "I'm with you no matter what Blue..." Nora didn't respond as she waited for the Brotherhood reply.

Maxson didn't disappoint, "There can be no peace! You will burn in the righteous fires of the Brotherhood like all others who oppose us! You-" Nora turned the radio to her command channel as she dropped her head, trying her best not to show any emotion.

Tapping the transmit button she turned to the window to take in the massive Brotherhood airship hanging in the distance as she quietly stated, "All batteries...fire."

It was as climatic as she had expected it to be, the dozen artillery units in her command peppered the Prydwen causing her envelope to erupt in flames instantly. Nora had never managed to figure out if it had used hydrogen of helium to keep it afloat, but she figured it didn't really matter since the entire thing exploded in an instant as its twisted smoking wreckage fell to the airport below it.

The cold, analytical part of her brain, the part that got shit done really, noted that the hanger housing Liberty Prime hadn't been destroyed in the crash, she should send her people to recover it ASAP. Sighing she turned to her friends and companions and noticed all of them, including Hancock had tears running down their cheeks as they stared at her.

If it was for the lives lost, or for her now so...so bloody hands she didn't know, nor did she know if the tears streaking her own face were for her benefit or not.

It didn't matter.

She was the Director now. She had to make the decisions no one else would.

"I want recovery teams sent out as soon as possible, prioritize securing Liberty Prime, manufactories, power armor, and energy weapons...get to it."

Turning she left the Castle's war room and headed to her barracks, she knew Piper was likely following her but ignored her for the time being to if nothing else prevent herself from losing it. Entering her room Nora wiped the tears from her eyes as Dogmeat lifted his mighty head from his paws and panted his doggy delight in seeing his mistress arrive.

"Heyya boy, come 'ere will ya?" The massive German Shepard rushed to Nora's side as she plopped on the foot of the bed, wrapping her arms around the ever loyal dog she mumbled, "What have I done boy?" A weight landed beside her, turning she met Piper's gaze as the younger woman sighed, leaned forward, and kissed her.

Pulling back she caressed Nora's cheek with one hand as she shook her head, "The same thing you always do Blue, what needed to be done."

* * *

 **2288 CE-** An alliance between the Railroad, Institute, Minutemen, and the shattered remains of the Brotherhood of Steel is formed. Much to her disdain Nora Shepard is now referred to as 'The Mother' by most denizens of the Commonwealth. Her "Son", the ten year old synth Shaun thinks the moniker is hilarious, if this is due to the original Shaun's tampering or the influence of Nora's own perverted sense of humor remains a point of contention.

 **2289 CE** -Boston is cleansed of all Pre-Mother plagues including Super Mutants and feral ghouls.

 **2291 CE-** Taking a note from Curie's 'Upgrade' the newly re-purposed Institute manages to transfer those afflicted with 'Ghoul'ism' to synth bodies, there are almost no rejections to this treatment.

 **2294 CE-** The newly minted Boston Federation makes contact with New Vegas via hijacked satellite feeds. Talks are headed by a man who simply calls himself 'The Courier'. After several months of discussion the Courier along with his wife Rose of Sharon Cassidy meet up with Mother in the remains of Cleveland and form a pact to combine their differing but equally effective technology to reclaim America. Through economic manipulations and the Courier's insider knowledge the NCR is easily suborned and brought into the fold without a fight.

 **2295 CE-** Nora Shepard and Piper Wright marry both opting to retain their maiden names, Nick Valentine stands in as Piper's best man and Nat Wright as Nora's Maid of Honor.

 **2299 CE-** Realizing that her fledgling alliance could easily fall just as Caesar's Legion had Nora and Piper both undergo the same treatment Kellogg had further prolonging their lives.

 **2305 CE-** The North American Alliance is formed and their new capital is founded in the ruins of Vancouver, both the Courier and Mother move their seats of power to the rebuilding city.

 **2307 CE-** The Lone Wanderer and his wife Sarah Lyons return from their long term mission in the deep south, upon discovering the fate of Elder Maxson and the Brotherhood they make contact with the Alliance.

 **2308 CE-** Through negotiation, threat, and pure will Sarah Lyons reigns in the remains of the Brotherhood and forces them under her heel as she announces her daughter to be the new future Elder. Mother and the Courier both support this decision as they push to reclaim more of the continent.

 **2310 CE-** North America is cleansed and reclaimed, a drive south is stalled due to a massive baby boom. Nat Wright marries Brandon Lyons, son of the Lone Wanderer and Sarah Lyons.

 **2312 CE-** Hannah Lyons is born, Nat and Brandon are terrified that their daughter will end up anything like their extended family.

 **2315 CE** \- After years of reverse engineering the 'Zeta' mothership supplied by the Lone Wander leads to the Institute creating their own faster then light vessel.

 **2316 CE-** The moon, now named Luna is surveyed, a strange new element is found in small amounts, tentatively referred to as 'Element Zero'.

 **2319 CE-** Survey mission on Mars discovers remains of an alien base as well as more of this Element Zero. Unlike the Zetans these 'Protheans' seemed to be much more passive in their observations of primal man. Their entire civilization seems to have been killed off abruptly roughly 50,000 years ago, this causes a push for macro scale development of plasma and laser weaponry. Humanity will not deign to endure the Apocalypse twice.

 **2320 CE-** To the shock of many, heroes leading similar coalitions to the Alliance had formed across the globe and make contact as one. Having no desire for another world war Mother and her advisers welcome the new arrivals with open arms, the old title no longer fitting their organization is renamed The Systems Alliance.

 **2322 CE-** During a mundane survey of the outer Oort cloud the planatoid Pluto's moon Charon is found to be an artificial relic covered in ice, preliminary scanning caused the platform to activate. The shed layer of ice destroyed thirteen probes and two scout vessels as it was flung from the device causing the deaths of 109 crewman. Once it's operating system was deciphered the Systems Alliance forces fell back to Earth to regroup. The device was apparently called a 'Mass Relay' and it was a macro version of the smaller drives used in their ships.

Its existence was considered terrifying by nearly everyone.

 **2323 CE-** Asteroids are dragged into Mars orbit as mass robotic mining begins, within six months Humanities first orbital ship dock is built.

 **2325 CE-** The Alliance's first Dreadnought, the Steadfast, is launched. Her maiden voyage is to fly through the Charon Relay and survey the system it arrives in. Upon return the excited crew announces the discovery of an untainted garden world.

 **2326 CE-** Humanity, including their robot brethren and those Super Mutants (now known as meta-humans) who had not undergone the synth transfer perform a mass exodus to the newly founded Terra Nova colony. Free from the constraints of a home world burnt to the ground by their ancestors humanity enters a Renaissance period.

 **2330 CE-** Hannah Lyons begins dating 'Shaun' Shepard.

 **2332 CE-** Systems Alliance forces spread between multiple star systems, expanding as quickly as possible supplemented by the Institute's synths.

 **2334 CE-** Hannah Lyons and 'Shaun' Shepard marry

 **2335 CE-** Hannah Shepard becomes pregnant. The colony of Shanxi activates the dormant Mass Relay leading out of their system.

)%*$# $ **Error-Error-Error** *%) ##)

'First contact protocols active. Transmitting data... **Error.**.incompatible software...attempting to... **DANGER DANGER DANGER-Code Pale Horse In Effect**

Extraterrestrial forces opening fire, beginning evasive maneuvers, **DANG** -'

* * *

 **So if I get any real response to this I'll continue because unlike my Code Geass crossover...this isn't marred with soul wrenching despair... Regardless, I hope you enjoyed and please review, I'll catch you all later!**


	2. Lei Zhao

**So I don't know if anyone actually wants this? Kind of just a teaser really, but if I get a good enough response I'll continue. This won't be very...culturally based shall we say? This is humanity, as in the whole, uniting together, so...don't be shocked, angered or offended by the end results. There will be gay people, religious people, atheist people, and just...people working together in this story to try and save their _species from annihilation_. So if I write something that offends your precious sensitivities?**

 **Piss. Off. I legitimately do not care.**

 **That was rather cathartic, really...**

* * *

There was one, irrevocable truth to the universe that no one could ever deny, and that was the simple fact that humanity was utterly, and completely terrifying.

It was something Minister Lei Zhao had known for many, many years. Before the great war, he'd been a delivery boy in Beijing, nothing important really, just another menial servant for the upper class, a simple serf at best. Then the nukes fell, and then the chemical weapons, and then the bio engineered animals. The Americans, the fools his government had insisted were weak, spineless cowards had fired everything they had at his great nation, and she had responded in kind.

The Earth, she...she very nearly died that day, at the hands of her children, playing with powers they had no right to, and very nearly snuffed out all life in their biosphere due to this hubris in the process.

Despite their best efforts, humanity _had_ survived, Lei had survived, in a fashion at least, and despite becoming a ghoul he had done his best to lead his people and protect them from the terrifying new world they found themselves in.

He wasn't very successful at first due entirely to the fact he looked like a classic zombie, **but** he _tried_ , which was more than anyone else could say really. Eventually, he had become a leader of the unwashed masses, and soon his calm rasping voice became the beacon of hope for his shattered people.

Knowing that China was...dead...too irradiated, too poisoned, too tortured, to sustain them, he led his people west. It was rough if he were to be honest, horrible really. Countless thousands died on their march across the glass plains that had once been the Middle-East, but they did not slow their pace, they couldn't afford to regardless.

Eventually he met his match in what was left of Lebanon, a mocca skinned woman named Sheva who hailed from Egypt and had traveled north and unified the shattered remnants of Europe under her banner.

While she welcomed his people it was with a ...weary, mindset at first.

After a time they joined forces, naming themselves Europa United, they then attempted to rebuild their broken world.

It was a vain hope, really, to try and reignite the lost past, but the truth was the resource wars had happened for a reason. They had nothing...nothing at all to build with, just left overs from a post consumerist society and that was just scavenging, not growing.

So, they had built ships and headed out west to the Americas, in hope of finding...anything that could give them an edge to survive in a world devoid of raw material.

What they found was salvation,a massive group of survivors who had been molded by generations of heroes welcomed them. The Courier, the Vault Dweller, the Lone Wander, The Chosen One, Mother, and many, many more had rebuilt a functioning nation in the absence of nationalism. It wasn't perfect by a longshot, but they were _trying_ , and that was what counted.

Lei had been shocked to find out that they had already managed space flight, and were readily trying to expand their efforts to get humanity the hell off of Earth and spread out to the skies so their very _species_ had a chance to survive.

He, Sheva, and Nora (who he would never call Mother to her face in order to avoid getting punched, thanks) had formed a triad of sorts in the Systems Alliance hierarchy. After receiving his new body Lei had sworn an oath with both women, that no matter what, he would protect the interests of humanity to the death.

These thoughts rolled through his mind as he stared down at Grand Admiral Marcus's request to take the Steadfast and a quick response fleet to Shanxi and determine if the communications blackout was a simple malfunction or an enemy action.

He had lived too long, seen too many die thanks to idiotic procrastination to ignore this, and really it did just scream 'trouble' regardless. Clicking 'Accepted' and sending it to the super mutant Lei leaned back into his chair and laughed a bit.

Humanity was terrifying, yes. They had survived a near genocide at their own hands, but they still lived regardless, and if a group of aliens decided to mess with them?

Glancing out the window he smirked as he watched a pair of cruisers lift from their berths, heading towards the heavens as their ionized wakes twisted the surrounding night sky into a cascade of radiant lights.

"I don't know who you are, or what you want. I do know though, that you have made a dire mistake." With that Deputy Prime Minister Lei Zhao stood and turned off the lights of his office, tomorrow he would know if his orders had been correct, tonight though, he had to meet Nora and Piper for dinner.

Thai again, ugh...


	3. Hancock

**Umm...yeah, just had a really bad night so I decided to post another POV one shot for this story. Please don't judge me on Hancock's language, he's Hancock after all. I know these are short and far between but they're also just...well...drabbles really, and to be blunt I WRITE THIS FOR MYSELF.**

 **Really, getting hate mail for writing something for your own enjoyment sucks...anyway...review if you want. Bye.**

* * *

Hancock was annoyed.

Naw, fuck that shit.

He was pissed the fuck off.

Once that beautifully vicious redhead had entered his life all those years ago things had been sent into a tailspin that he couldn't pull out of even if he had wanted to. She was magnetic, she was brutal, she was giving, and most of all...she cared.

With that she made Hancock himself start caring again which was admittedly annoying as fuck.

He'd always cared about Goodneighbor, he _was_ the mayor after all, but for humanity in general? Fuck 'em.

Best to get stoned and forget about the big issues because those who solved the big issues would forget about you at best, and use you at worst.

Once again, a beautiful violent redhead in a suit of shredded power armor followed around by a nosy reporter and a huge fucking dog changed his understanding of things.

Nora was Nora, and she proved herself to be a bit of a do-gooder, but not one that would fleece herself for her fellow man gaining nothing in the end. Nah, she was a smart dame, one of those old world college types, and what she represented was some honest to god _hope._

So he'd gone along with her plans, he'd sided with her when she decided to take over the Institute and use their synth program to clone as many viable humans as possible to repopulate the world. He was there when they had sent their first grasping hands out into the heavens, and stood in shock as they found signs of alien life.

He honestly didn't know what it said about himself that he was more shocked by the arrival of fellow survivors from across the ocean then the thought of aliens guiding their evolution; but hey, at least humanity began to heal in the process.

God had he felt like a pussy those first months after the chinks and the Euro trash made themselves at home in Boston, but they had grown on him, especially his fellow ghouls. After a while, when he got the hang of their fucking bang-jacked language, he began respecting them once he understood the struggles they had endured.

Apparently things were way more fucked across the drink then they were in what used to be the United State of America, and that was just...horrifying. Whether it was super mutants, Deathclaws, tens of thousands of acres of radioactive soil, sterility along with of course, raiders, the fact that this was considered _better_ was terrifying to say the least.

It took time, a new body, and a lot of AA meetings but eventually Hancock proved he was a better man than he had portrayed himself to be before. He'd been given training, power, and a position, and had been made the leader of a colony, his very own people, just like Goodneighbor.

Shanxi was _his_ , every fucking mick, spic, chink, and mutant on this rock were _his_ people and he didn't give a flying fuck what anyone else had to say about that. They. Were. His.

So when a bunch of four eyed aliens showed up demanding he surrender _his_ people to them to become _slaves_ , well...fuck 'em.

Still seething Hancock glared at the holo displayed before him scowling as he noted the attacks in their painfully accurate detailing.

The defense fleet was a loss, for what little worth it had been to begin with. Honestly three frigates and a cruiser against nine times the forces size was just a lost cause from the get go, not that they hadn't drawn blood before their fall mind.

Apparently, and this would be very interesting come the obviously approaching ground war, the invaders electronic warfare abilities were a little...lacking. More then a few of the attackers ships had rammed into their neighbors or fired all their munitions at random killing hundreds in the chaos.

Good times.

Taking a puff off his one-hitter Hancock glanced to the techie busily typing into his computer before muttering out an order, "When will they land?"

The tech sat up and squeaked (really? squeaking? Fucking pansies) out his reply as quickly as possible, "Two hours Governor, at the most. Outside of that we have nothing."

Sighing Hancock not for the first time wondered why he took up this gig to begin with as he exhaled the held in smoke, a functioning human body was a wondrous thing when it came to absorbing barbiturates.

"Should be good, order the Defender Primes to activate and take position, all civilians are to be evacuated to the Vaults, and all National Guard are thus activated. When everything is in position I want the barrier shield over the city activated and all aerial units put on standby, we won't be losing our capital to a bunch of scumbag slavers. Not today, not ever."

With that the Capital City of GoodNeighbor, because that was what it was to the infant suburbs surrounding it, bristled as the aliens roared forward to plunder this new well of wealth.

Hancock grinned as the first nuclear missile left it's silo to charge forth at the encroaching enemy fleet, "I honestly wonder if they have any idea what they're getting themselves into?"

With that the missile detonated and burned a dozen ships from the sky, glancing at the monitor once again he couldn't resist snorting, one missile down, four hundred and seventy three to go.

* * *

 **Lets. Get. Dangerous.**


	4. Zaeed

Alien invasion, really, who woulda thunk it? Lieutenant Zaeed Massani certainly hadn't, nor had any of his unit, or his mother and father, or his little sisters and cousins, or his aunts and uncles, or anyone else he may or may not be related to by blood.

Because lets be honest here, knowing that your faster than light space travel and shield technology was all based on a bunch of reverse engineered alien gobbildy gook was one thing; being addressed by gods be damned _reality_ that yeah aliens were real and wanted to enslave your family?

Something totally different then you'd been prepared for.

On that note, they'd apparently taken the time to learn English and Mandarin, and seemed fairly content to wide-broadcast their intentions to enslave his entire species on every spectrum available. Normally he'd scoff at such antics, but his little sisters were on this rock, playing with their dolls, finger paint'in and the like, which meant the threat was aimed at his family.

No one, not a soul, threatened a Ranger's family and lived to tell the tale.

That was the unspoken vow when the Desert Rangers of the Mojave joined the NCR a century past, and the same vow that was carried on when they melded with the Systems Alliance and were renamed the First Reconnaissance Ranger Unit.

Rangers were right up there with the Brotherhood of Steel, Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, and the Ghosts, the best of the best, the cream of the crop. You didn't get your armor and coat until you fought through hell and lived to laugh about it. Just like the Brotherhoods power armor, just like the Ghosts stealth suits, just like the ODST's Helljumper tattoos.

When you saw a Ranger, and you took in her battle tattered brown duster and red tinted lenses, you _saluted_ her and hoped to Christ she had no intention to get drunk anytime soon. Zaeed had been told this once he'd been accepted into the N7 program, but hadn't truly understood until he graduated through it.

The Rangers, the Brotherhood, the Ghosts. the Helljumpers, they were separate units in different branches, Army, Navy, OSI, and Marines (Navy but they'd deny it to their deaths) respectively, but they shared the same level of brutal professionalism across the board.

They were brothers and sisters in arms, sworn to protect humanity in its various shades and colors and sworn to be as violent as possible in the process. Family though...if your loved ones were in the crossfire... well, Mother taught them all what would happened to anyone that threatened a stone cold killers family.

So it was with that thought in mind that the young man rushed towards the newly landed alien with kukuri in hand, the creature barely having time to say 'Huh?' as Zaeed's screamed out "SOD OFF WANKER!" ripped through the air. A moment later a bleeding head hit the ground as a duster clad Ranger wiped his blade clean on the white gold grass before him.

"Six down, how ever many to go..." Zaeed grinned at that as he sheathed his blade and pulled his automatic laser rifle from his back, priming Jessie he shot off a burst of blue light at one of the four eyed squints who turned the corner and cackled when he disintegrated into ashes.

It was a good day to be a Ranger. He vaguely wondered where Revy wandered off to and just as quickly disregarded the thought as he killed two more aliens.

The less he knew about that walking Geneva convention exemption's actions the happier he'd likely be.

Rushing to a turned over air car he raised a single brow as he observed a pair of the aliens dragging a screaming teenage girl to a waiting drop ship.

Fuck, he could kill the squints sure but damn if he could pull it off without getting shot by the ship or the girl being burnt down by her captors.

Before he could do anything though pulsing music filled the area catching the aliens attention along with Zaeed's own, soon Ritchie Valens 'La Bamba' echoed through the streets as a dark grey APC with burning red flames painted at its edges shot across the distance.

The APC slammed into the drop ship without preamble which in turn rolled over and exploded, Zaeed was able to catch sight of a snarling cat painted on the side before the doors shot open and several power armored figures dropped out and gunned down the aliens in seconds. A moment later a woman in a short skirt rushed out and helped the captured girl to her feet and escorted her back to the APC taking no notice of the destruction around them as the power armored members followed after them.

Seconds later the APC buttoned back up and began careening down the streets now playing Elvis Presley, and Zaeed couldn't help snorting in amusement as he shook his head moving along to his next way point.

Fucking Atomic Cats, they had a chapter on every goddamn planet he'd ever been posted on, he'd get a drink with 'em later, they were a blast even with the bad poetry nights. Glancing to the south he noticed a brilliant white beam lance from the ground intercepting a drop ship causing it to twitch and fry out as it spun in circles and soon exploded.

 **"PERSONAL FREEDOM IS THE RIGHT OF ALL SENTIENT BEINGS. ALL THOSE THAT DENY THIS INALIENABLE RIGHT DESERVE IMMEDIATE ERADICATION!"** Zaeed smirked as he watched a Defender Prime hurl a plasma bomb to the sky taking out several drop ships in one attack, goddamn did he love himself some over the top boom.

With that thought he glanced up as an alien frigate burned across the sky and was soon intercepted by hundreds of anti air cannons, the frigate bloated up like a rotten corpse a moment before exploding in a flash of blue light.

Zaeed ignored the onrushing pressure wave but as the blue smoke curled about the area he noticed pained coughing and quickly entered the building he'd heard it from. It was a woman, youngish, early twenties, silver hair, green eyes, wearing combat armor and holding her rifle properly. She didn't have a breath mask though and was coughing as the blue smoke wafted about her face, grimacing Zaeed removed his ranger mask and slammed it on her face without question.

She gasped in shock, obviously not expecting the action but soon gave him a thumbs up in appreciation, as the smoke cleared he removed his mask and placed it back on his own face as the beauty before him gave him a wane smile.

"Thanks, can't believe I got caught in a shopping trip of all things, Commander Hannah Shepard, at your service."

Zaeed felt his spine straighten automatically as he threw her a salute, "Lieutenant Zaeed Massani ma'am!"

She snorted at that waving his salute off in amusement, "Drop that shit LT we've got squints to kill, they don't react well to knives to the throat ya know? Come on, I think I saw some Atomic Cats' load'n up a transport, we should follow them, should be fun they always have top shelf no matter what they're rid'in into."

Zaeed only grinned in turn and nodded, he may be a Ranger, but Marines were a certain kind of fun crazy, and Hannah Shepard screamed that in silent spades.

Tonight was gonna be blast.

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 **I freaking love Zaeed. Please review.**


	5. Marcus

Grand Admiral Marcus was an old hand when it came to fighting. A _very_ old hand at that. Even by super mutant standards he was considered an elder, near ancient really, and with age comes wisdom. He'd been nothing more than a maintenance engineer in a Vault whose number he couldn't even remember, when the Master's forces broke down the door and dragged the entire populace away.

He'd been dipped into a vat of the Forced Evolutionary Virus, and then became part of the Master's horde, seeking to convert all in the wasteland to true perfection.

Then the Vault Dweller, a man of cunning and wit, had double talked the Master into realizing his quest for perfection was impossible due to the FEV causing sterility, and said Master killed himself in despair.

That left Marcus without a job, so he broke from the roving hordes and wandered off on his own for a few years until he ran into a steel paladin in the dead of night.

No, really. He had been shuffling items around his pack while walking up a hill when he stumbled into a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, and really to this day he could never clearly say who was more surprised, the terrifying towering mutant, or the zealous righteous knight. Not that it mattered, the man yelled something about being on a quest to cure the wasteland of the plague of mutations, swatted the pack out of Marcus's hands and roared a challenge.

Now Marcus was an amiable sort, really, even by human standards he was considered to be rather mild-mannered, and for a super mutant, unnaturally civil. _But_ that pack had been the last of his water and jerky, and it was now covered in dirt and pouring out into the desert soil.

This annoyed him.

So brandishing his super sledgehammer he charged the paladin who, ironically enough, weilded the same weapon and got down to business.

They fought for days.

Literal _days._

Eventually the paladin, armor rended in dozens of places, helmet lost who knew when, blood running from the corner of his mouth, broke out laughing.

Marcus, bruised, bloody, sledgehammer reduced to little more then its handle some time ago began chuckling as well, and soon his deep throaty laughter echoed across the hills along with the paladin's.

The paladin's name ended up being Jacob, and he was a kind sort, young, blunt, and highly bemused at their stalemate. He'd decided the super mutant wasn't all that bad, and figured he'd travel with Marcus because, why the hell not?

Eventually they found the remains of an old mining town, place called Broken Hills. The uranium the mines held was useful for trade, and both men knew good folk, both human and mutant, who wouldn't mind working the mine if it would give them some semblance of peace. So that's what they did, and as the years, and decades passed the thriving town grew up and attracted all sorts, ghouls, mutants, humans, even a scientist.

To this day Marcus had no damn idea why that man trained a radscorpian to play chess, sure it was impressive as hell and all, but _why?_

Eventually, Jacob grew old and died, and Marcus was alone again, but he tried to keep the town together, tried to keep the peace as sheriff, make Jacob proud and all that. That's when the murders started.

The racial tension had just gotten stupid, the super mutants and ghouls were no threat to the humans, it was just pure prejudice and little else but he tried his best to diffuse it. When people ended up missing his salvation appeared in the form of a tribal girl, the "Chosen One" she would sarcastically point out.

Natalia had been pretty damn funny really, a descendant of the Vault Dweller she'd inherited her ancestors quick wit and sharp tongue and melded it with a love for very large guns. A woman after his own heart really, and she'd offered her help in diffusing the situation.

She did, and it wasn't really to anyone's benefit because not a year later the mine ran dry and the town was soon abandoned. No one's fault in the end, and he had honestly appreciated her effort, there _was_ a reason he'd given her that scoped rifle for offering to do the job for free after all.

There was more wandering after that, then he ended up in the shell of a resort town outside of Las Vegas of all the damn places. He founded a new settlement, named it Jacobstown after his long dead friend, and made it a haven for broken super mutants, those that lost themselves to age, abuse, and schizophrenia.

It hadn't quite worked out the way he wanted it to.

The Nightkin Davison and Tabitha had both been...incredibly extreme cases of weird that even the mild-mannered Marcus was left blinking slowly in bafflement after witnessing it. He did take heart in the fact that Lily Bowen found some solace wandering with the Courier and his friends though, that was at least one case of things turning out well.

When the Courier had made contact with the Director of the Institute (he would always heed her exasperated plea to never call her Mother) he had met Marcus immediately to ask for his consul. So after a few months of travel through the wastes, he met up with this unifier in Cleveland, and had been drawn into a whirlwind of progress that followed in her wake.

Over the years spent rebuilding humanity Marcus had been put in charge of many projects, and much to his surprise he discovered he was rather skilled at space based warfare and actually rather enjoyed the challenges it presented. This apparently made him a shoe in for a command position and much to his chagrin he was soon put in command of the Systems Alliance Navy.

He took this position, as he had all other previous ones, seriously and studied as much military history and strategy that he could get his massive green hands on. Rather ironically there wasn't much western doctrine to be found, yet the Chinese refugees had plenty of books and documents to offer him, apparently they weren't fond of the idea of losing four thousand years of history to something as petty as the Apocalypse.

He really did appreciate the Chinese, hardy folk, and their tea was delicious.

With that thought in mind his fleet relayed into their target system and immediately launched drones to observe Shanxi, as the three meter long craft relayed into the debris field surrounding the planet Marcus got his first look at the situation in hand.

The planets defense fleet had consisted of a first generation cruiser and a handful of frigates, frankly, they were crap, more token than anything and largely automated. They hadn't even had energy weapons, just cheap Prothean knockoff accelerator weapons, enough to scare off raiders and little else.

So seeing that over a dozen shattered hulls from the enemy fleet were haphazardly drifting amongst the bones of his people Marcus couldn't help but smile. The ancient super mutant muttered the prayers his mother had taught him as a child, and silently begged the heavens to accept those brave men and women's souls in the afterlife before standing from his massive chair.

"Tactical, I want a bead on the flagship of the invading fleet. We're not bothering with diplomacy when it comes to raiders."

The woman in question had her fingers dancing across the console before turning to meet his gaze, "Sir I have a lock, the pulse cannon is fully primed, all capacitors at 97%."

Marcus smirked darkly at that, the pulse cannon was a hybrid energy weapon designed form the Zetan mothership's main gun combined with the pre-Great War Tesla cannon. The magnetic cohesion field that kept the beam constricted enough to be effective spanned the entire 1.6 kilometers of the Steadfast's hull, and it of course guaranteed that the energy lance would always hit its target.

The trick was how many shots would it take to bring the enemies shields down?

"Fly the colors Lieutenant, and fire." Transmitting the Systems Alliance anthem at the exact moment the Steadfast's main cannon fired the galaxy at large discovered exactly what they had angered when the two kilometer long Batarian dreadnaught was lanced through by a beam of coherent light. There was no great build up, no dramatics, the dreadnaught simply exploded in a flash of blue light, it's burning debris slamming into the ships surrounding it.

The lieutenant at the firing station blinked a few moments before turning back to Marcus, "Sir it appears they _don't_ have shields."

The Grand Admiral couldn't help the deep chuckle that boiled forth from the bottom of his chest, "Oh...well now isn't that interesting?"


	6. Saren

**And done! This is the last of my 'Fragments' style introduction to this universe. My original idea was to show the world as it is from different points of view, short, sweet, and to the point. You know the major players point of views, you know the weapons they use, you know what their political motivations are, and now you get to see a major Citadel players viewpoint.**

 **There won't be any more 'Fragment' chapters after this, they'll be standard length, 3-5k, and I just wanted to thank you all for being patient as I experimented with this.**

 **On a side note while I prefer, and aside from one play through, always played as FemShep, would you guys prefer BroShep? Anyway, please do enjoy!**

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Spectre Saren Arterius was a Turian dedicated to his job, that is the duty of maintaining the stability of the galaxy at large and doing so with as small of a footprint as possible. That was why he hadn't said a word about his current assignment when it was passed down to him, it was why he didn't complain about the inanity of tailing a slaver party, and it was why he had simply done his job without an further input.

Better to just file the reports later on and let the Salarian Special Task Group take the fall for whatever idiocy they found themselves in after all, they were rather good at that. He couldn't help rolling his eyes at that thought but he did manage to remain standing stoically silent without uttering a breath, so none of the manic creatures scurrying about him noticed the show of emotion.

Salarians were, probably, his least favorite species after Batarians, although on that note most people hated Batarians on principle if nothing else. Apparently being ruthless, amoral slavers was bad for your public relations, who knew?

Salarians though, they were too short sighted, too 'in the moment' to make proper decisions. Like for instance developing the Genophage while thinking it would never be used to subjugate the rampaging race it was tailored for.

Really? They went through the effort of developing something that would stop the Krogan cold and they thought the Hierarchy wouldn't use it to end a losing war? Salarians and their thought experiments, seriously.

Still, this mission was...harder than most. They'd tailed the slaver fleet in their stealth ship for a time, sending out limpet drones by the hundreds to adhere to the hulls of the rogue fleets vessels while running on low power. Their plan had been to find some sort of consistency in the Hegemony's recent actions, what the STG unit had run into was a first contact situation gone all wrong.

These 'Humans' did not fuck around, they had sent literal _hundreds_ of nuclear fusion warheads at the invading slaver fleet, and while their own defense ships had only held the line for a few hours their ground forces more than made up for it.

With _Energy Weapons_ no less.

The humans were, for the most part, built like the Asari, but unlike the Asari they were not mono-gendered which honestly was a bit of a relief. Asari tended to look down on men simply because they were different, which was frankly, annoying as hell.

That being said if he were to compare the human defenders to anyone in the galaxy it would be the Krogan, and frankly that was scary as hell.

Seriously, if the histories they translated from captured omni-tools was true these people had nuked themselves to oblivion, rose from the ashes, and decided to take the galaxy on because fuck it, why not?

They liked fighting, they enjoyed the challenge, and even burning their own home world to the ground hadn't kept them down for more than a few centuries. They were tough, powerful, and ultimately terrifying in their desire to survive.

The Batarians had clocked a sleeping giant on the head and would now have to deal with the befuddled, and annoyed creature as it fully awoke form it's slumber.

Saren couldn't help but feel the idiot slavers had bitten off more than they, or any other civilization could chew. His thoughts were soon derailed as the sensor officer quickly spat out the newest upheaval to the status quo.

"Oh dear, new contacts detected, forty-seven vessels in total, unknown make and models. Largest is 1.6 kilometers in length, four such vessels are in this range. Outside of the the Dreadnought analogue there are twenty-one vessels in the 800 meter range and the rest are between 100 and 500 meters in length."

By the spirits, what kind of monster had the Batarians angered?

"Alien vessels opening fire!" The sensor officer squawked this out as a beam of white light burned its way across the distance in seconds and impaled the Batarian flagship. It exploded in a single moment, the human fleet seemed to pause at that, as if they hadn't expected this to happen.

"So...you're out of your element as well...yet you have the upper hand...what will you do?" As Saren mulled this over the alien fleet broke up and charged the Batarians, the frigate analogues pulled in close to the Batarian ships and began spitting out waves of liquid like green light that literally boiled their targets hulls away.

The cruisers shot out their primary light beam weapon while launching waves of fighters, and the dreadnoughts simply picked off anything that drifted in their field of fire.

What had been a one sided slave raid had become a complete slaughter for the Batarians, and Saren realized quite quickly that they needed to get the hell out there immediately.

"Self destruct all the probes, then make for the relay. The Council needs to know about this _yesterday_."

One of the Salarians actually spoke up, in a whiny tone at that, "But the data!"

Saren resisted the urge to shoot the idiot while shaking his head slowly, "The Batarians riled something they never should have even approached. They initiated first contact with an isolated species with the sole purpose of enslavement, and the unknowns won. The Council needs to know what happened today."

The STG crew exchanged glances a moment before returning to their work sending the small vessel back to the Mass Relay, all while Saren wondered what the hell he was going to tell his bosses.

He honestly wondered if there was something wrong with him when he had to resist the urge to break out laughing.

Humans...how...interesting...


End file.
